Cinder Path Tales

184 CINDER-PATH TALES treated us to a continuation of festive taps, stopping withwonderful precision whenever the music broke off,even if in the middle of a note. Next came " Annette Toineau," the " Queen of French Song, Fresh from Her Parisian Triumphs;" and the big man at the piano began to execute a lively tune, which setall the feet in the house in motion, until Annette herself appeared. This she did with a nod, a wink, and a kick that won instant applause,even before she opened her mouth to sing. An enthusiastic admirer in the gallerycalled out, "You're all right, Liz, old girl," fromwhich remark, andthe accent (much more Celtic thanFrench) with which she afterward treated us, I argued that Annette was but a stage name,and the "Pa­ risian Triumphs" probably a fiction of the manager. Annette was a very pretty little girl, with a trim figure in abbreviated skirts, and she sang rathernaughty songs in a man­ ner that made them worse than they were written. I could hear Jim, after she was through, remark to the old lady byhis side, that such songs were likely to lead to the perversion of youth, andshould not be sung exceptto those whohad reached the age ofdiscretion; by which I suppose he meant himself and